1. Technical Field
This invention relates to exercise equipment and more particularly to a portable pull-up apparatus for providing a user with an easy and convenient means of performing a variety of pull-up exercises at different resistance levels according to the user's needs.
2. Prior Art
No matter what our occupation, all of us use our back every day when we're sitting, standing, lifting or even lying down. A back injury can result in pain, disability, and even loss of income if it prevents us from doing our job. Together with proper lifting techniques, back exercises are one of the most important things each of us can do to strengthen our backs and help protect them from accidental injury. Pull-ups have been called the “King of Back Exercises,” the backbone of the back workout and the only one true test of upper-body strength.
But regardless of what you choose to call it, the pull-up is the most grueling exercise you can do for your upper back. When done properly, pull-ups maximize these functions (strengthening and protecting), making them one of the purest lats exercises. Different grips and body angles allow you to target the back in different ways, which in turn helps you to more fully develop your back. For example, the basic pull-up with an overhand shoulder-width grip stresses your outer lats, while the wide-grip pull-up with your back arched (pulling your mid-chest to the bar) stresses the middle of your back and involves your rear deltoids more. As you get stronger and a set of fifteen becomes easy, you can strap on a weight to develop your back even further.
Aside from being possibly the most effective back exercise available, the pull-up is also one of the safest—unlike cable rows and bent rows, which can put you at risk of lower-back injury due to improper form or excessive weight. These problems are eliminated with the pull-up. Even cheating on a pull-up won't hurt anything except your ego as you perform the knee-up/pull-up compound movement. Because pull-ups are so difficult (and in spite of their effectiveness), the pull-up bar at most gyms hovers ahead in bleak solitude—under-utilized, unloved and largely ignored. Sure, the occasional patron will stop by and hang from the bar to stretch or maybe do some hanging leg raises, but you can count on one hand the number of people who will grab hold and pull themselves skyward. That's unfortunate, because the pull-up, in all its variations, is without peer in developing upper lats, the muscles responsible for pulling your upper arms backward and skyward and toward the sides of your body.
Accordingly, a need remains for an apparatus in order to overcome the above-noted shortcomings. The present invention satisfies such a need by providing an apparatus that is convenient and easy to use, lightweight yet durable in design, versatile in its applications, and designed for providing a user with an easy and convenient means of performing a variety of pull-up exercises at different resistance levels according to the user's needs in the privacy of his or her own home.